Keeping things wrapped up...

Just a quick post today to see if anyone else does this - you buy a bunch of things, but don't unwrap  them until months later when you actually use it. I felt like going on a beauty splurge today, but then realised I have a few things that I bought months ago and have left untouched in my drawer!

Maybelline New York Color Tattoo in 300 Gold Shimmer (Limited Edition) RRP $11.95*

Mirenesse Super Long Wear Gel Mineral Face Colour in 30 Aquamarine RRP $39.95

Boe Beauty Jumbo Wind Up Lips in 21 Manic Pink Jumbo Lips RRP $2

Savvy by DB Classic Blush in Rose RRP $4.99

Savvy by DB Graduating Bronzer RRP $6.99

*LE Color Tattoo's are not available in Australia

Do you keep things in their original packaging until you use them? What do you think I should use next?

BYS Browns palette

Having a weakness for brown/neutral shadows means I had to pick this up. Also, I saw some amazing swatches of this palette over at Marked Beauty so I was intrigued! (any excuse, right?)

BYS is one of those hit or miss brands - some stuff is good, and some is pretty pathetic. I'd say this one falls into the impressive category!

 BYS Metallics Browns palette

 Swatches of the first four shades (top row) - sorry it's a bit blurry, the sun decided to hide behind the clouds halfway through taking these photos!

Swatches of the top row

Swatches of the bottom row (last 4 shades)

What I like about this palette:

I love the colours, these are exactly the kind of colours I've been searching for. I bought MUA's Heaven & Earth but they weren't the right kind of browns for me. While these colours look very similar in the pan, they are slightly different when swatched. The last shade reminds me a lot of half baked from the Naked palette too. 

The pigmentation is very good - all the swatches above have been done dry using the applicator (no primer). 

The colours are long lasting with a primer - they last 12+ hours with my Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer (which is actually the best invention ever).

It's not too bulky and very light weight.

It's also been mentioned by Lauren Beautyy in one of her earlier videos, surely that's a good thing, right?

What I don't like

It smells overwhelmingly like baby powder - that's because it has talc in it. It's a pretty strong smell but doesn't linger upon application.

It's very powdery - while it is pigmented, it's soft and crumbly so there is quite a bit of fall out. This means it can become messy. I think for this reason alone, it won't be very travel friendly because it will just make a mess!

Overall, I really like this palette for the colours and I've been using it quite a bit for a simple daytime look. 

BYS is sold at Kmart, Gloss, the Reject Shop and a few other places (which I can't confirm) as well as online at http://www.fashionaddict.com.au/

I bought this for $4 but it normally retails for $5.

Have you got this palette? What do you think?

Trying out Savvy by DB

Sorry for my absence in the blogging world, I've just had exams for the Masters degree I'm currently doing, but now they're finished and I've got a whole week of holidays (gosh, so much time I could travel the world). 

Anyways, at the Priceline sale a little while ago, I picked up a few Savvy products. As far as I know, this brand is exclusive to Priceline and a little bit mysterious - they don't seem to have a website!

I picked up two lipsticks, one of which I'll show you because I absolutely love it! For $3.50, I'm so happy I decided to buy it.

 Savvy Lipstick in Sugar Rose

Savvy Mineral Baked Blush in Blossom

L-R 

Savvy Lipstick in Sugar Rose

Savvy Mineral Baked Blush in Blossom

Savvy Lipstick in Sugar Rose

Savvy Mineral Baked Blush in Blossom

This lipstick is called Sugar Rose, its a gorgeous pink with a hint of shimmer. The formula is nice to apply, a little drying but that improves wear time. I've been wearing it as a MLBB lipstick quite a bit.

Now we have the mineral baked blush in Blossom. When I saw it, I instantly snatched it up, it was too pretty to ignore. This blush is a really nice colour, but I can't go overboard with it because it'll look like I've been punched in the face. The pigmentation is average, but that doesn't bother me too much because of the colour. Also, maybe I'm just crazy but I find this hard to blend?? It's hard to buff out the distinct lines from applying the blush, whereas I don't have any trouble with my other blushes so it's not my brush or my technique. For this reason, I choose not to use it on a daily basis because I don't really have any longer than 5 minutes to do my makeup each morning (if I'm going to uni that is, and lately I've barely gone anywhere else!). 

All in all, I think this is a great budget brand, I'm definitely going to try out another lipstick when my beauty ban is over. And because I'm blush crazy, I'd be interested in trying out another blush but perhaps not from the mineral baked blush range.

Have you tried Savvy products? What are your thoughts?

My Beauty Buying Ban

A common problem issue (or joy?) with beauty bloggers is that we just seem to buy sooo many things, use them a few times and then they retreat into the black hole known as the cupboard (or wherever you store things). I have acquired 5000 versions of the same thing, so I'm going to ban myself from buying a few things for a while...

1. Skincare 
I have so much skincare to exhaust, most of which I didn't pay for. I either got it from beautyheaven trial teams (was anyone else on the Nivea pure and natural trial?), blog giveaways and free samples including the recent Neutrogena samples and I also have some Arbonne skincare samples. I have enough to last me a year or more, so I won't allow myself to buy anything for a looong time!

2. Hair treatments. 
I have quite a few leave in conditioners, deep conditioners, oils etc so I have to use a few of them up before I buy any more. This doesn't include my styling products (such as heat protectant) or shampoo/conditioner.

3. Lipsticks.
I haven't ever used up a lipstick in my whole life, so until that happens, I'm not allowed to buy new ones. 

4. Foundation/BB cream
I have 3 liquid foundations, 2 BB creams, one pressed powder and one mineral foundation. That is more than enough for now. Although, I've hit pan on my pressed powder which I use the most, so I might be repurchasing that soon.

I think that's enough for now. I don't think I'm being too hard on myself, so hopefully I can stick to this plan. Wish me luck!

Are you on a beauty ban? Or have you tried before and failed? (or succeeded?)